Pic claims maiden GP2 win in Hungary thriller

26 July 2014 – Arthur Pic claimed his maiden GP2 victory for Campos during a thrilling Feature Race at the Hungaroring, ahead of Stefano Coletti and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs.

Pic profited from an early stop for Prime tyres behind the Safety Car as initial leaders Felipe Nasr and Jolyon Palmer had to settle for points during a crazy race.

Neither pole man Nasr nor front-row starter Tom Dillmann enjoyed the best getaways, but Palmer surged from sixth on the grid to move into third as he approached the first corner. Dillmann held the inside line but Nasr went around the outside to retain the lead, while Palmer had a look at the Caterham driver into the chicane as Nasr romped away.

Dillmann's pace was immediately significantly slower than Nasr and Palmer pounced at the start of the second lap, although by this time he was already over three seconds down on leader Nasr.

Nasr and Palmer maintained a similar pace up front as Dillmann held third, before the Safety Car was deployed on Lap 6 due to an accident involving Kimiya Sato and Stéphane Richelmi.

Richelmi tried to go around the outside of Sato at Turn 10 but misjudged the distance and launched over the back of his rival before heavily impacting with the tyre barrier.

The drivers who started on Options – Raffaele Marciello, Pic, Coletti, Quaife-Hobbs, Takuya Izawa and Daniel Abt – stopped for Primes while Nasr led away at the restart, aided by a lapped Sato having to get out of Palmer's way.

Nasr and Palmer circulated together up front as they pulled a steady gap on Dillmann, while behind Marciello was slapped with a drive through penalty for pit lane speeding.

Palmer closed the gap to Nasr and with 13 laps to go he dived up the inside into the first corner and took a shallow line to the apex. Nasr came back up the inside and edged out Palmer as they rounded Turn 3 to maintain the lead, before the Brazilian pitted at the end of the lap for Options, coming out in 13th position behind his Prime-shod rivals.

Palmer responded a lap later to make the switch to Options and emerged from the pit lane narrowly ahead of Nasr but the Carlin driver's tyres were already warmed up and he snatched the position by going around the outside at Turn 3.

Palmer came back at Nasr and swept around the outside with a brilliant move, again at Turn 3, before Nasr responded with a late move up the inside of the chicane, having almost been edged onto the grass by his rival.However, the stops for Nasr and Palmer left Pic up front with a comfortable lead over Coletti and Quaife-Hobbs.

Nasr and Palmer began to make their way through slower rivals while ahead of them, Nathanael Berthon and Sergio Canamasas made contact between Turns 1 and 2, with Canamasas suffering a heavy impact into the outside barrier. The Safety Car was deployed to clear up the wreckage, with Canamasas attended to by the medical team.

While that incident was going on, Palmer inched ahead of Nasr to claim a position. There was yet more drama behind the Safety Car as Rio Haryanto lost fourth place when a wheel detached from his Caterham.

Pic was the driver who led away at the restart as the race switched to a timed event, while behind Palmer dispatched with Abt and tried to get through on Izawa, albeit unsuccessfully.

In the end Pic claimed his first GP2 win, while Coletti finished in second place despite earlier contact with Julián Leal, and Quaife-Hobbs took a podium for Rapax.

Izawa finished a career best fourth, ahead of Palmer, Abt, Nasr and Marciello, who fended off Vandoorne to take the reverse-grid pole.

Sunday's Sprint Race at the Hungaroring gets underway at 10:35 local time (GMT +2)

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